Cafad Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 I sought out a Halcro EC800 a few months ago, had to buy it in from Canada second hand which is a bit ironic since it is Oz made, and while I have to say it is a very good player I'm at a loss to compare it to anything. I can say without hesitation that it is a big step up from my modified consonance cd120 linear but that is about all. There is also very little info on this player on the web, I have found a total of 3 reviews and that is about it. Now Halcro has a very impressive reputation so I am assuming it is a pretty good player, but since the Halcro story is effectively over there is no real chance that there will be anything new written about their gear. Is there anyone who has heard this player out there and can give me an idea as to how well it rates or what players its direct competitors would be in the area of sound quality? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willco Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Hi, I believe Halcro are no more--might pay to check warranty/ future service etc. W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proftournesol Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Is there anyone who has heard this player out there and can give me an idea as to how well it rates or what players its direct competitors would be in the area of sound quality? As long as you like it, and it looks like you do, does it matter how it compares? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted June 3, 2012 Author Share Posted June 3, 2012 Oh I like it alright, and that is not likely to change any time soon but my sense of curiosity is killing me. If I had bought a high end Marantz, Linn, Sony, Krell or any of a hundred other brands there would be info all over the web about them, but not with Halcro. So I thought I would ask the community at large and see if anyone else had an opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maximus Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Oh I like it alright, and that is not likely to change any time soon but my sense of curiosity is killing me. If I had bought a high end Marantz, Linn, Sony, Krell or any of a hundred other brands there would be info all over the web about them, but not with Halcro. So I thought I would ask the community at large and see if anyone else had an opinion. Hi Cafad, When I auditioned my speakers the shop owner had them running through a Halcro universal player into an A/V Pioneer susano receiver. Don't know which model but the sq led me to buy the speakers. It was one of the finest combos' I can remember. High quality amp and speakers required to fulfil the Halcros' potential. Wonderful unit imho. It's a real shame the situation at Halcro.. cheers Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted June 19, 2012 Author Share Posted June 19, 2012 Thanks Frank. Yeah, it is a shame but that is the way the high end world works (not just in audio either ) the market is small and while it is great when times are good it is the small, expensive, niche producers that go first when times turn hard. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 It seems almost no one has heard this player so I'll put my impression of it out there for people to read just in case someone else is searching for info like I am. This is a nice player, very clear and clean presentation with a full bodied sound that is not warm and not really cool either. I have a modified consonance cd120 linear and when comparing the two it is obvious that the Halcro is the superior player. More depth to the performance and more rythym to the sound and while the full bodied effect gives the impression that the Halcro might lose out to the consonance on accuracy and detail when you make the effort to listen past the presentation itself and get serious it just does not. The accuracy and detail are there it is just that with the Halcro you are listening to the performance as a whole and with the consonance you are listening to the components of a song all put together. The Halcro has some operational issues, the led screen freezes on loading discs about 1/3rd of the time and the buttons on the remote only seem to get a reaction out of the player about 2/3rds of the time, I'm not sure what the story is there but I suspect these are the sorts of gremlins that accompany a companies first attempt at a product. If there had been a model 2 these little gremlins would have been ironed out. Upsampling is selectable, off or 92 or 196 (numbers from memory, could be wrong), I leave it selected to off. It also auto plays every time it is loaded, sometimes I like that and sometimes it annoys me no end, something to do with the mechanism being a dvd rom I suspect. The DAC is a burr brown, 1792 (i think, that family anyway) which is an 8 times oversampling chip (which is enough, who needs up and over, one is just fine). And of course it plays dvds and sacds as well. It's a nice unit, I just don't know exactly how nice. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted June 28, 2012 Volunteer Share Posted June 28, 2012 From what I can find, this player cost around $4k new. For that sort of cash I think you are being very kind if you can forgive "gremlins" like screen freezes and a remote that doesn't work every time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Well it helps that I like its sound. And as for the remote I have no idea if its behaviour is standard or if it was dropped on its head at some point, I did buy it second hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craigandkim Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 If I remember correctly the EC-800 was priced at $7500 AUS when it was released (2005-07?) - it was called the Uni-90 as well. DAC could be the PCM1794- here Was seriously thinking about this machine, however in the end an Esoteric DV-60 won the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted June 30, 2012 Author Share Posted June 30, 2012 I have seen 4k listed in a few places, may have been the US price. I didn't think it was so expensive here in Oz though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craigandkim Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 (edited) they would have been US prices....and yes upon release it was $7.5k in AUS (as far as I remember). PS: The MC-50 (5 channel amp) was priced $8800 around the same time. Edited June 30, 2012 by Craigandkim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhakPak Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 they would have been US prices....and yes upon release it was $7.5k in AUS (as far as I remember). PS: The MC-50 (5 channel amp) was priced $8800 around the same time. For the record Halcro 2010 pricing as follows (in AUD incl GST): EC800 Universal Player $7359 MC50 amp $10,769 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Thanks Brod. Makes me feel good about picking it up second hand for $1200, just over $1500 after postage and customs. Absolute bargain in relative terms! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhakPak Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Given the audio predigree of EC800 and at that price makes it an absolute bargain. Now all you need is a pair of Halcro DM88 mono blocks and a Halcro DM10 pre-amp to go with the EC800! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted July 9, 2012 Author Share Posted July 9, 2012 Yeah, let's hang off on the DM88's for a while shall we, I have a house to pay off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhakPak Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Maybe you should lend me the EC800 and plug it into the front end of my Halcro amps, I reckon that would sound OK! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 (edited) Well it does sound rather good through your old DM38, so yeah, I recon it would sound OK too. How have you been Brod? Tried any new mods on the 78's recently? I tell you what, when that hideously expensive cd player that I ordered finally arrives I'll do a side-by-side comparo and write it up. After that, if you would still like a lend of it I am sure we could work something out. Cheers! Edited July 10, 2012 by Cafad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhakPak Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 ...nothing new to report, still miss that dm38, but I'm glad it's serving you well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphy Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 @cafad are you still using this cd player? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 Not regularly Dolphy but I still have it, yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cafad Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 I posted the content below in my halcro for sale thread, but I think it makes a bit more sense to re-post it here. Begin quotation marks! Well it seems I'm finally over my head cold and so I am once again able to listen to music. All that talk with Dacman about Halcro DM10s got me thinking about things and so I decided to rearrange. Mass loading that EC800 on a vibration platform has made quite a significant difference. One quick IC change and things were good. Very good in fact. So good I am suspecting that my S2R speakers are currently the weakest link in the chain, I don't think I've ever felt that to be the case in the past. I'll do something about it tomorrow. End quotation marks. That was yesterday, and as today is the tomorrow I was talking about yesterday then that means that today is the day I should be doing something about the aforementioned "it". Unfortunately my head cold was not quite finished with me (it was only playing dead so I would stop throwing small, white tablets at it) so I'm off for some mid-morning snoozing shortly. With a little luck I'll be feeling well enough this afternoon to swap out my S2R speakers for my ML2 Ltd speakers, then we shall see what a very serious Halcro/Halcro/Halcro/Lenehan system is capable of. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dacman Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 38 minutes ago, Cafad said: I posted the content below in my halcro for sale thread, but I think it makes a bit more sense to re-post it here. Begin quotation marks! Well it seems I'm finally over my head cold and so I am once again able to listen to music. All that talk with Dacman about Halcro DM10s got me thinking about things and so I decided to rearrange. Mass loading that EC800 on a vibration platform has made quite a significant difference. One quick IC change and things were good. Very good in fact. So good I am suspecting that my S2R speakers are currently the weakest link in the chain, I don't think I've ever felt that to be the case in the past. I'll do something about it tomorrow. End quotation marks. That was yesterday, and as today is the tomorrow I was talking about yesterday then that means that today is the day I should be doing something about the aforementioned "it". Unfortunately my head cold was not quite finished with me (it was only playing dead so I would stop throwing small, white tablets at it) so I'm off for some mid-morning snoozing shortly. With a little luck I'll be feeling well enough this afternoon to swap out my S2R speakers for my ML2 Ltd speakers, then we shall see what a very serious Halcro/Halcro/Halcro/Lenehan system is capable of. I've got a Halcro DM10 in my system...They make very very nice gear good luck with the speakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryO Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 (edited) Morning Jeff, I'm sure there are a few members who have put up their hand for one of the EC800's that Magenta are selling off that would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the player once you do the speaker swap. I know I am anyway. cheers Terry Edited July 19, 2017 by TerryO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gemini07 Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 I used a Halcro MC20 with my (recently sold) ML2 Plus R's and that combination was superb IMO. Having a top class compatible preamp (something with high resolution) is also important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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